- Chimpanzees skip meaningless steps. But humans faithfully perform futile steps.
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Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens) (Whiten+ 2005)
Show them a human performing a futile task to retrieve food from a device with an irrelevant procedure to get the food and see how well they mimic it.
- With the contents of the box out of sight, it is hard to see that the work is futile.
- We experimented with two patterns: one in which the contents of the box were shown after teaching and then the participants were made to realize that it was useless, and the other in which the contents of the box were visible from the beginning to teach them the useless task.
- Subjects are chimpanzees and humans 3~4 years old
How the box works
In the case of chimpanzees
- Almost 60% of the steps are wasted in a box that you can’t see inside.
- but when the box is changed to a box with a view of the inside, the number is reduced to 20%.
- If the box was visible inside from the beginning, it ignores the human being’s futility in the procedure.
In the case of human beings
- Repeat the procedure as shown, even if the box is visible inside.
- The same is true if you did it first with a box that you can see inside.
- (It doesn’t sound like a significant difference, but I’d rather start with a box that I can see inside and have a higher rate of wasted steps.)
- (It doesn’t sound like a significant difference, but I’d rather start with a box that I can see inside and have a higher rate of wasted steps.)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-004-0239-6
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